“An ideal existence is not impossible, but it is for a different time and realm reserved for those who have graduated from the learning assignments of earth life. For the ordinary man in his present stage of evolution, a life without difficulties would be of little value. No lessons of growth would be learned, no transformations of inflexible natures into Godly consciousness, no compelling incentives to seek and know one’s Maker.”

“Make your heart an altar of Christ-love — which lives in all races and loves them equally — so that you may love all people, seeing in their body-temples the dwelling place of omnipresent Christ… Exchange gifts as offerings to the Christ in all; and on the Christmas tree of your calm consciousness, richly decorated and glistening with divine soul qualities, place for him the gift of your heart.”– From The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You by Paramahansa Yogananda (Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA. All rights reserved).

Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship, encourages us through his writings and talks to look beyond the material celebration of the holidays, to focus also on the spiritual celebration: our connection with the Divine, which resides within each one of us.

I am quoting several paragraphs below from his discourse on John 1:29-34, in which he writes about the most important of all subjects: the power of love over evil–and Jesus’ role in God’s great plan:

P.Y. writes that Jesus, “was not the arrogant power of a tyrannical crusader out to destroy evil by force. Rather he came…to offer himself as a sacrifice to exemplify the supreme power of love. If God used his omnipotence to punish man, it would be impossible for a mere mortal to exercise independent judgment and thus learn and grow by his mistakes. The karmic law works whereby man punishes himself proportionate to his misdeeds, while at the same time God uses love to encourage discriminative right behavior and to awaken in the human spirit the higher soul qualities of God’s image within the true Self.

“Jesus exemplified God’s love in a rare expression of spiritual magnanimity: the willing oblation of his own life. By sacrificing himself for the spiritual welfare of others, a savior who is empowered by God to do so can expiate the sins of others. Jesus, a world savior, took on himself not only the karmic debt of his disciples but also the sin of the masses by allowing himself to be crucified.”

Jesus offered himself as, “an exemplar of the consummate power of love over evil, wisdom over ignorance, forgiveness over vengefulness, light over darkness.

“Jesus’ sacrifice was, primarily, to exemplify for all time the power of spiritual force over ignorance and brute force. He showed that the power of love could conquer the Roman Empire, with which all its might could not suppress his philosophy. His reign has outlasted
that of all warrior conquerors, based on the divine edict: “Love your enemies.”

Love your enemies. This, whether they know it or not, is the calling of the world’s young people (but old souls) who have entered this world now, as a college grad said on the news a few nights ago “to stop the hate.” Thanks be to God, Creator, Love, Universe, Great Mystery.